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Topic: iPad as EFB (Read 9286 times)

I have been working toward a paperless cockpit and recently tried the iPad + Foreflight. Foreflight is a great app (I have it on my iPhone for preflight), and it can be used to display sectionals, TAFs, and enroute charts as well as approach plates. All this seemed to be working fine until yesterday. It was a bright, sunny, 90F day in Atlanta. I had the iPad in the special kneeboard (www.forpilotsonly.com/) displaying the sectional. It was mid afternoon and the sun was streaming through the windshield and onto the iPad in my lap. The readability was marginal but not unexpected. What was unexpected was the iPad declaring it was too hot and turning itself off. The iPad screen absorbs a lot of heat in direct sunlight, and that in combination with the ambient temperature and being partially enclosed in the kneeboard led to the unit overheating in a fairly short 15 minutes or so. When an iPad gets too hot it turns itself off and will not turn back on until it cools down. I was able to cool it down in a couple of minutes by holding it near the fresh air vent, and on the last portion of the flight where the sun did not shine directly on the iPad screen, it did not overheat.

So the iPad is a cool gadget and very useful before and during flight. Just keep it in the shade.

I have talked with the folks at Fliight Prep who make Chart Case Professional. They tell me they are working on a complete program for Chart Case Professional for the I-Pad. This will be one neat unit when they make this happen as Chart Case Professional has Geo refrenced approach plates and charts (bot VFR and IFR). Someone will need to come up with a cooling fan to take care of the overheat issue. Seems to me that we will soon see a lot of different mfgs. with similar products to the I-pad. Just keeps getting better and better for us...

I had the same thing happen just sitting outside in the sun during a relatively sunny but pleasant 75F day a couple weeks ago. Had it in Apple's case and was downloading/transmitting on 3G and bboth of those probably increased the temp. Took it out of the case and let it cool and was back running in 10 minutes. I agree, though, to be cockpit useful it has to be 100% reliable. I had planned to use it in a rubber wrap around case to protect it from my Cygnet flight desk's clip, but the case may insulate it too well. Might have to just put a piece of rubber under the clip to protect the top of the screen. The direct metal-metal contact between the iPad and the flight desk may allow heat to be dissipated avoiding this problem in flight. May have to dedicate an A/C vent to it, if they'll point that far forward. Hopefully heat won't be a problem in IMC.

After talking to a few folks I think the sun on the screen is the overwhelming reason for the overheating. The dark screen is just very effective at absorbing energy. I think the iPad will do just fine if you can keep it out of the sun. That is at best inconvenient on a sunny day. If you are depending on the iPad to view the approach plate, it would probably be a good idea to keep it cool while cruising on top.

I keep my ReaderPlates subscription and carry a Kindle DX as a back up.

Maybe someone will come up with a thermoelectric cooling plate or something.

I agree with the other post re. the usefulness of the iPad. One other minor issue is the polarization of the screen. I use polarized clip-ons and the polarization results in an unreadable screen when the iPad is vertical. Rotate to horizontal and all is well. Same type effect with the iPhone, only the screen is more readable in the vertical position. Don A

Appreciate the comments. I have only used my Ipad while flying to brief approaches and for taxi diagrams. I load approaches into my Chelton, which provides automatic altitude bugs for step down approaches, but you have to enter MDA, etc., manually. Also on the MFD a lot of important data is not available, however with the Ipad you actually can read the plate. Understand Jeppesen is working on an Ipad app, that would allow the use of their plates.

I have not experienced heat or light problems on the screen, probably because I keep it tucked away until I need it. Another great feature, if you have the 3G, version is you can use your favorite internet flight planner, and file online from anywhere. Which is really great on long cross country flights, with fuel, or overnight stops.

I've recently bought an iPad. The ease of use is remarkable and I'm very glad to hear that ChartCase is developing an app. I have also experienced the problem with wearing polarized sunglasses. As for the heating problem I've been looking into a company called Thermpak, Thermapak it makes what they call a heat transfer pad (basically a heat sink) that they claim works better than a fan; if anyone has experience with these let me know. Does anyone know if someone is working on a bluetooth WAAS GPS receiver for the iPad, and maybe satellite link weather?

Have you contacted them about the pad for the iPad? That looks like a good solution if it works. The first time I used my iPad on a flight back from buying it, it did the overheat thing (without a case). Let us know what you find out. THANKS!

I have had the problem with polarized lenses for some time. It seems that every screen on the panel has a different polarization profile. I finally just ordered my last set of sunglasses without the polarized lenses.

One thing that is nice about the iPad and the Foreflight charts is that you can use either screen orientation. The little switch on the side that locks the orientation is also crucial when using the iPad on the kneeboard.

I also been using Foreflight's free checklist app. and am reasonable happy with it.

I have just got an iPad and took it with me on a flight from Cali to MT and back. I have ForeFlight and the iPad worked awesome as a tool on the ground. I have the wi-fi/3G model and did not find it helpful in the air because of getting or maintaining a connection which was difficult. Any suggestions or tips?